The Secret History

published	2004 by Vintage
first published	1992
binding	Paperback
isbn	1400031702 (isbn13: 9781400031702)
pages	576
description	Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of th...more [close] Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill.
date added	01-04-07 edit book

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Martine rated it:

02/24/08

bookshelves: favourites, modern-fiction, north-american, psychological-drama, thriller

Read in January, 1993

The first paragraph of The Secret History roughly sums up the mood of the book. In it, the narrator, Richard Papen, says that he thinks his fatal flaw is 'a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs'. If you can relate to these words, chances are you'll love The Secret History. If not, you'll probably wonder what the fuss is all about. As for me, I can totally relate to those words, so I love the book. I've read it over half a dozen times, and while I do think it has its prob...more The first paragraph of The Secret History roughly sums up the mood of the book. In it, the narrator, Richard Papen, says that he thinks his fatal flaw is 'a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs'. If you can relate to these words, chances are you'll love The Secret History. If not, you'll probably wonder what the fuss is all about. As for me, I can totally relate to those words, so I love the book. I've read it over half a dozen times, and while I do think it has its problems, I never fail to find it utterly gripping.

The Secret History is both an intellectual novel of ideas and a well-paced murder mystery without the old whodunnit element. The reader learns right on the very first page that Richard and his friends have killed one among their midst. The rest of the book explains how they came to their gruesome deed and what happened to them afterwards. And against all odds, it makes for compelling reading, despite the fact that you know right from the start who the killers are. Such is the power of Tartt's writing that you find yourself turning page after page, waiting for answers, justifications and a sign of remorse. Once these have been dealt with, the book loses a bit of its power, but until that time, it's near perfect.

Donna Tartt's great gift as a writer is her magnificent talent for description. Her evocation of life at a small private university in New England with its oddball mix of ivory-tower intellectuals and ditzy cokeheads is rich in detail, both shocking and funny. If it's not entirely realistic, she makes it so. Likewise, her skill at characterisation is superb. While Richard is not entirely convincing as a male narrator (a fact I find more noticeable every time I reread the book), he and his friends make up a fascinating cast of characters: six aloof, self-absorbed, arrogant intellectuals who are obsessed with ancient Greece and don't particularly care for modern life. They're snobs and they have major issues, but somehow that only makes them more alluring. Together, they form the ultimate inner circle, the kind of tight-knit group that you feel should always stay together. Which makes it almost natural that they should be willing to murder anyone who might jeopardise that group dynamic, incomprehensible though this may seem to the average reader.

I can think of many reasons why The Secret History strikes the chord with me that it does. For one thing, I have a thing for timeless and ethereal stories, and this is one of those. Somehow the book has a dreamlike, almost hypnotic quality, despite it being very firmly based in the rather unromantic 1980s. For another, I have always been drawn to the unabashedly intellectual, and this book has that in spades. It makes geekdom alluring, and I just love Tartt for that. Ultimately, though, I guess what I really respond to is the friendship aspect. The Secret History is very much a book about friendship. It's a book about wanting to belong, about trying to be accepted by people you admire and about being willing to make sacrifices to keep the friendship intact. It's about the insecurity you feel when you think you might not be completely accepted by the group, after all, and about the paranoia you experience when it seems your friends may have betrayed you. About the feeling of invincibility that comes with knowing you have great friends and the melancholy that accompanies the disintegration of a friendship. The book basically reads like an elegy on a great friendship, and one doesn't necessarily have to share the characters' intellectual attitude towards life, morality or morbid longing for the picturesque to be able to relate to that. It is enough to have yearned for close friendship. And let's face it, who hasn't?

I do not think The Secret History is a perfect book. The ending, I think, is decidedly weak, although to be fair, I can't see how else Tartt could have finished the book. The ending definitely reflects the disintegration that is going on in the characters' lives, and in that sense can be said to be appropriate. Still, I wish Tartt could have come up with something on a par with the rest of the book. If she had, this would have been a six-star book. I don't know many of those.
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S. added it (review of isbn 0679410325)

12/26/07

recommends it for: Heather

Studying the Classics: The Potboiler

Okay, so if you like Bret Easton Ellis or Thomas Harris, you're going to love this 500+ page novel about a group of Greek studies students. Yep, they're studying Greek and the classics. Wait, where are you going, Gentle Reader? You don't find reading Aristotle in the original as exciting as a comic book film?

Author: Donna Tartt is a Southern writer--if by that definition you only mean a writer who is from the South. Born in Greenwood, Mis...more Studying the Classics: The Potboiler

Okay, so if you like Bret Easton Ellis or Thomas Harris, you're going to love this 500+ page novel about a group of Greek studies students. Yep, they're studying Greek and the classics. Wait, where are you going, Gentle Reader? You don't find reading Aristotle in the original as exciting as a comic book film?

Author: Donna Tartt is a Southern writer--if by that definition you only mean a writer who is from the South. Born in Greenwood, Mississippi, she was educated at the University of Mississippi and, the rather un-Southern, Bennington College, where she and Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) became friends. The Secret History (dedicated to Ellis) is Tartt's first novel, which earned her a prodigious $450,000 advance. Currently, Tartt publishes as a contributing writer to the magazine the Oxford American; my favorite piece of which is her essay entitled "Spirituality in the Modern Novel" (issue Nov/Dec 1999).

Plot: It's simple: a group of Greek students kill their friend. Now if you think I've spoiled the plot all you have to do is read the Prologue to discover this for yourself. Tartt gives away the usual carrots in a mystery (who gets it and who did it).

Richard Papen, the narrator of the novel, (Tartt takes on the male voice to tell this thriller--though I think it has more to do with the dynamics of the inner Greek circle than a comment on the male murderous mentality) is a kid from Plano, CA--never trust them West Coast folks--who ends up studying Plato at an exclusive New England private college (much like Bennington). He soon joins an inner circle of Greek students under the tutelage of their demi-god Julian, a mysterious professor who demands such complete dedication to his course of study that the students have to only take classes under him. The group of students consists of Henry, the most intelligent, wealthy, and darkly charismatic of the group and ultimately a sort of Pan to Julian's Dionysus; Francis, a Victorian-ish homosexual; the twins Charles and Camilla--the only girl and the group's love interest, except for Francis; and Bunny, the jovial and annoying victim.

Tartt cleverly reveals in the Prologue that Richard, already a part of the group, participates in the murder of Bunny. Then as the novel begins, we follow Richard as he meets these strange people and becomes accepted by them. We are pulled into the novel wondering why Bunny, a friend of theirs, has to be killed.

The Pretense: With references to Homer, Dante (sure he's Italian but he's still an oldie), Plato, Aristotle, Euripides, Jacobean revenge plays (British but who reads those guys anymore anyway), and so on, it's candy for geek, I mean Greek, wannabes, like me. All said allusions, however, are in a clear context and often explained so that no prior knowledge is needed (as the above passage shows). In fact, Tartt often painfully over explains these allusions and her references to classical texts/ideas, so be warned. Many readers maybe put off by the cultural elite tone of the book and not be able to empathize with the characters, seeing them as snobs or pretentious poseurs which will ruin the experience of the book. But then, The Secret History's preoccupation with incest, dionysian orgies, and murder reminds us why Ancient Greece was so much fun. ...less

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